Four organizations requested a total of $81,500 from the Carroll County Board of Supervisors at the board's meeting today.

The supervisors heard presentations from representatives at each organization during the meeting.

Jim Auen and Nick Badding, president and vice president of the Carroll Area Development Corporation, requested $63,000 from the board for the upcoming year.

CADC plans to use the funds to continue supporting existing jobs and industries, as well as play a more active role in support services provided through Iowa State University Extension and Outreach and Des Moines Area Community College.

"A lot of things don't change - what we do, what we're about," Auen said, referencing the recent turnover in leadership at CADC. "We always want to expand what we can offer."

Auen thanked the supervisors for being involved in economic development.

"When we interviewed other people, we found out how little county governments and city governments do (for economic development in some areas)," he said. "We're in a good place."

The Carroll Chamber of Commerce and CADC last week announced that Shannon Laudauer, executive director of the Boone County (Neb.) Agency in Albion, has been hired to succeed Jim Gossett as executive director. Gossett left the Chamber/CADC position to become director of key accounts and economic development for Raccoon Valley Electric Cooperative.

Nikki Heuton, director of Carroll Area Child Care Center and Preschool, requested $11,000 from the board for 2014 - the same amount the center received the previous year.

Between its two sites, the center serves 183 children, with 35 enrolled in its preschool program. Through recent grants and fundraising efforts, the center was able to replace old shelving and countertops. It also added a secure entrance to one of its sites and locks to its classroom doors.

The center hopes to use the upcoming year's funding to pay for staff training through seminars and other programs.

"I believe you have to have well-trained staff to provide quality child care," Heuton said.

Libraries in Carroll County submitted two separate funding requests, one for the Coon Rapids Public Library one for the Carroll Public Library.

Faye Seidel, from the Coon Rapids library, requested $500 for technology. She plans to use the funds to add Microsoft PowerPoint and Publisher to the library's computers.

"There are just some areas that cannot get high-speed Internet," she said. "For these school kids, (the Microsoft programs) are almost invaluable."

For Carroll, director Kelly Fischbach requested $1,000 for programming. She also hopes for more fundraising for the library in the next five years.

"When you consider that we go to rural areas, our budget is low," she said.

Lou Ann Mowrey, director at the Family Resource Center, requested $6,000 - $1,500 more than the center received last year.

She explained the additional funds will allow the center to reach more families and more children, both those whose parents need help as well as those in foster care and who are being adopted. Many of them, because of their backgrounds, need additional assistance from the center.

"After they've been abused and neglected and sexually abused, that never goes away," she said. "That haunts them for the rest of their life."

The request for increase is partly because other sources of funding for the center have decreased, Mowrey said.

"It's really needed," she said. "We haven't had an increase in a long time, and it's desperately needed."